Systems and methods have been recently developed for the widespread use of optical traps or tweezers. Such tweezers have become indispensable in a wide range of uses for manipulation and separation of many varieties and sizes of small objects. The fields of use include the biosciences, micro-sized machines, optical applications, and even selected chemical processing systems. However, current optical traps and their configurations are limiting their use and preventing successful small scale system operation due to inefficient and even ineffective trapping characteristics and lack of independent control over a trap's shape and force profiles.